Monchi unveiled

Newly appointed sporting director Monchi held his introductory press conference today at Trigoria, here is an excerpt of his words:

“Good day, everyone. Before answering, I’d like to apologize to those who have written to and about me in the last 3-4 months and I wasn’t able to respond with the information but at that moment, I simply had to think only of my club, which was Sevilla.”

“I do not consider myself the best sporting director in the world, rather, a lucky guy in the career I’m pursuing, a career I have devoted a lot of time and effort to. It’s true I’ve been tied to certain things I did at Sevilla and developed a tradition, but when I learned of Roma’s interest, I immediately got very clear ideas (of what to do). I think there is a very large margin for growth in this club, starting from the base that already exists. We will not start from scratch because of the extraordinary job done by Sabatini and Massara.”

“Totti and De Rossi? I will start with De Rossi. The desire and mutual interest is the same, we both want to continue together. We’re both feeling a cramped for not having reached the agreement but I met Daniele and, besides being a great footballer, he is a great guy, we will try to achieve this common goal. As for Francesco, I came here a week ago and I knew that there was already an agreement between the club and him, which predicted that this would be his last year as a footballer and starting next year he would continue as director. I ask Totti to be close to me, but only if he wants to, because I will feel lucky if I can learn only 1% of what he know about Rome. Francesco is Roma.”

“How much did Baldini matter in bringing me here? I can not quantify how much (influence) Baldini had. Baldini was the person who had received the mandate from Pallotta to contact me, but I was convinced by Roma, not Baldini.”

The Editor of RomaPress.us, John has been covering Italian football as a freelance journalist for over 10 years and has appeared in various publications including ASRoma.com, EuroFantasyLeague.com, and ESPN.